Sony HT-Z9F Owners and Discussion Thread

Is anyone having problems with the connection to the sub and rears recently?

Mine has been completely solid since I got it a few months ago, until the last two weeks when I've been getting more and more drop outs getting worse every day. Usually it's momentary drops that will happen every few seconds or minutes (on both sub and rears), but a couple of times it's like the sub has "crashed" and has to be turned off/on again at the back. It may do this for an hour then the next hour will work fine again.

Using a phone app I can see there's no wifi interference on the frequencies it uses (around channel 150 in 5GHz), and to be sure I unplugged my router for a while which didn't help. There's only one other signal detected when I did this on 2.4Ghz from a neighbour.
  • RF Channel is set to ON (and has been toggled as suggested elsewhere).
  • Wireless Playback Quality set to Connection makes no difference at all.
  • I performed a factory reset too.
The reason I'm asking is when it first started happening I went to the setup screen and noticed the firmware had been updated. Given I had no problems previously I'm wondering if it could be related to that?
 
Does it still have drop outs if you change connection setting in wireless quality and see if it improves?

Or try relinking the speakers again, I had to do this recently as I lost connection completely to sub and rears, it has been fine since I did this.
 
Is anyone having problems with the connection to the sub and rears recently?

Mine has been completely solid since I got it a few months ago, until the last two weeks when I've been getting more and more drop outs getting worse every day. Usually it's momentary drops that will happen every few seconds or minutes (on both sub and rears), but a couple of times it's like the sub has "crashed" and has to be turned off/on again at the back. It may do this for an hour then the next hour will work fine again.

Using a phone app I can see there's no wifi interference on the frequencies it uses (around channel 150 in 5GHz), and to be sure I unplugged my router for a while which didn't help. There's only one other signal detected when I did this on 2.4Ghz from a neighbour.
  • RF Channel is set to ON (and has been toggled as suggested elsewhere).
  • Wireless Playback Quality set to Connection makes no difference at all.
  • I performed a factory reset too.
The reason I'm asking is when it first started happening I went to the setup screen and noticed the firmware had been updated. Given I had no problems previously I'm wondering if it could be related to that?

Does it still have drop outs if you change connection setting in wireless quality to connection, see if it improves after changing this?

Or try relinking the speakers again, I had to do this recently as I lost connection completely to sub and rears, it has been fine since I did this.
 
Does it still have drop outs if you change connection setting in wireless quality to connection, see if it improves after changing this?

Or try relinking the speakers again, I had to do this recently as I lost connection completely to sub and rears, it has been fine since I did this.

Thanks, unfortunately I've tried both of those several times and it didn't help :-(

I'm going to try attaching the sub with a cable later on (as suggested much earlier in this thread). Even if that works though, it won't be feasible for the rears.
 
Thanks, unfortunately I've tried both of those several times and it didn't help :-(

I'm going to try attaching the sub with a cable later on (as suggested much earlier in this thread). Even if that works though, it won't be feasible for the rears.
Have you tried a factory reset ?

I think if you manually run update it will check if wireless speakers need updated, might be worth a try as well.
 
Have you tried a factory reset ?

I think if you manually run update it will check if wireless speakers need updated, might be worth a try as well.

Yes I tried a reset last night, and it says the speakers are up to date.

Have to say I'm losing confidence in Sony, between this and my Sony TV that has had ARC problems caused by firmware for over 6 months now.
 
lesson learned here is don't have auto-update turned on.
 
Yes I tried a reset last night, and it says the speakers are up to date.

Have to say I'm losing confidence in Sony, between this and my Sony TV that has had ARC problems caused by firmware for over 6 months now.

Not sure why that would happen, unless it tried to update just as switched off and caused an issue?

Try raising a ticket with Sony support. Ask them if it's possible to roll back the firmware to previous version with out causing any issues.

At least if your able to do that will definitely confirm if issue is a firmware issue.

If it's still under warranty, might be worth raising a warranty claim on it.

Edit,...as a thought try testing on another tv, to rule out any tv arc issue as well.
 
Not sure why that would happen, unless it tried to update just as switched off and caused an issue?

Try raising a ticket with Sony support. Ask them if it's possible to roll back the firmware to previous version with out causing any issues.

At least if your able to do that will definitely confirm if issue is a firmware issue.

If it's still under warranty, might be worth raising a warranty claim on it.

Edit,...as a thought try testing on another tv, to rule out any tv arc issue as well.

Thanks, I will contact Sony.

I have a PS4 and bluray player attached directly to the soundbar and the problem still occurs, which rules out the TV.
 
Thanks, I will contact Sony.

I have a PS4 and bluray player attached directly to the soundbar and the problem still occurs, which rules out the TV.


Something else to try, if you haven't already tried switch tv and SB off disconnect all hdmi ports switch tv and SB on, and on then off and reconnect all the hdmi ports.

Just incase its the hdmi handshake between devices causing the issue. Unlikely but worth a try.

http://site.hdtvsupply.com/hdcp1.html#:~:text=When a HDMI / HDCP Handshaking,to reset hdmi handshake / timing.
 
Something else to try, if you haven't already tried switch tv and SB off disconnect all hdmi ports switch tv and SB on, and on then off and reconnect all the hdmi ports.

Just incase its the hdmi handshake between devices causing the issue. Unlikely but worth a try.

http://site.hdtvsupply.com/hdcp1.html#:~:text=When a HDMI / HDCP Handshaking,to reset hdmi handshake / timing.

Thanks. Tuesday was by far the worse day then magically yesterday it was completely solid again. The next time it happens I will try what you suggest then contact Sony if it doesn't help.
 
Thanks. Tuesday was by far the worse day then magically yesterday it was completely solid again. The next time it happens I will try what you suggest then contact Sony if it doesn't help.

Does appear strange if intermittent, especially if rebooting tv and SB makes no difference.

I wonder if anything else externally could be affecting it, I know it's a lot of hassle, but are you able to test in another part of house when it happens to rule any undetected external interference?
 
do you have any other zigbee type devices? philips hue, wireless doorbells etc?
 
No zigbee/smart home type stuff apart from a few Echos, and I don't have the space to move the bar and TV somewhere else.

It was fine again yesterday too. Total speculation, but could it have been overheating?

For the past two weeks the weather was extremely hot, and it was over the same period I started noticing problems. On Tuesday it was back to average temperatures, however the soundbar had probably been on for most of the day and was very hot to the touch on the back.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the gremlins have left...
 
No zigbee/smart home type stuff apart from a few Echos, and I don't have the space to move the bar and TV somewhere else.

It was fine again yesterday too. Total speculation, but could it have been overheating?

For the past two weeks the weather was extremely hot, and it was over the same period I started noticing problems. On Tuesday it was back to average temperatures, however the soundbar had probably been on for most of the day and was very hot to the touch on the back.

I'll just keep my fingers crossed that the gremlins have left...

Maybe do you switch fully off at wall ever, for rears and sub as well?/

I know my sub/rears got quite hot when I forgot to switch them off.
 
Last edited:
Has anyone got a Zf9 connected to an 55xg505?

I'm looking at replacing TV in other room and getting another Zf9 to replace my old DAV s 550 surround system.

I'm looking at if at all the ZF9 sits in front of feet, or does it recess at all in gap between the feet?

And what is distance from back panel of the 55XG505 tv to the front grill of ZF 9?
 
Has anyone got a Zf9 connected to an 55xg505?

I'm looking at replacing TV in other room and getting another Zf9 to replace my old DAV s 550 surround system.

I'm looking at if at all the ZF9 sits in front of feet, or does it recess at all in gap between the feet?

And what is distance from back panel of the 55XG505 tv to the front grill of ZF 9?
Put the TV on an aftermarket stand? My ZF9 fits perfectly under my KD49XG9005 that way. There hardly any gap at all and it can slide back fully flush with the TV, or, come forward. The Sony TVs have got really impractical feet.
Screenshot_20200704-001319.png
 
Put the TV on an aftermarket stand? My ZF9 fits perfectly under my KD49XG9005 that way. There hardly any gap at all and it can slide back fully flush with the TV, or, come forward. The Sony TVs have got really impractical feet.View attachment 1328644

Thanks tv stand is a reasonable size at 45cm deep, but wondered about how it sits in feet or not with tv.

Dont mind if there is a gap between TV and SB, just that there is enough room.
 
Thanks tv stand is a reasonable size at 45cm deep, but wondered about how it sits in feet or not with tv.

Dont mind if there is a gap between TV and SB, just that there is enough room.
I found the issue with my TV was that there was just no way to fit the SB anywhere near the TV. The TV feet pushed it right out. It looked worse than in the photo, sitting down you could see all the cables and stuff behind the TV.
Screenshot_20200704-101650.png
 
best bluray/4k movies to test the soundbar for atmos audio?
 
Hi

looking to replace my LG OLED c6 with one of the new CX models in the near future

With my current setup, I feed in SKY and PS4 into the Z9F with HDMI out to the tv. It can be a bit temperamental at times, but on the whole, it works pretty well.

With the new TV and HDMI 2.1 would I be better off feeding Sky/PS4 direct to TV to get the best performance or keep it as I have it now? (I hope that makes sense :))

Thanks
Jim
 
consider that the LG CX dropped support the DTS, so if you need that from any of your devices you will need to connect them direct to the soundbar.

where possible always connect devices direct to the soundbar.
 
best bluray/4k movies to test the soundbar for atmos audio?

Any of these 4k disks have good atmos tracks

Appocalyse now
John Wick 1 - 3, (1 is especially good in night club scene)
Matrix (lobby scene has bullets zinging all around you)
Blade runner
Blade runner 2049
Mission Impossible Fallout
Blackhawk down
Overlord (opening scene really good and very loud)
 
Hi

looking to replace my LG OLED c6 with one of the new CX models in the near future

With my current setup, I feed in SKY and PS4 into the Z9F with HDMI out to the tv. It can be a bit temperamental at times, but on the whole, it works pretty well.

With the new TV and HDMI 2.1 would I be better off feeding Sky/PS4 direct to TV to get the best performance or keep it as I have it now? (I hope that makes sense :))

Thanks
Jim

I err to putting 4k player direct to sound bar.
You could always test and see.
 
Any of these 4k disks have good atmos tracks

Appocalyse now
John Wick 1 - 3, (1 is especially good in night club scene)
Matrix (lobby scene has bullets zinging all around you)
Blade runner
Blade runner 2049
Mission Impossible Fallout
Blackhawk down
Overlord (opening scene really good and very loud)

out of those, probably the only one i'd probably want to watch is MI Fallout, but typically the only remux HDR i can find doesn't have Atmos audio, it has DTS-HD and TrueHD 7.1
 

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